The top officials of Die Linke plan to adopt a motion at the party’s federal conference in June that delivers a firm statement against antisemitism. According to the ARD, the managing board voted by telephone on Saturday to approve a draft that urges members to recognise their intra‑party responsibility and makes it clear that antisemitic positions have no place within the party. The paper states that “Die Linke stands against every form of antisemitism and against the instrumentalisation of the Middle‑East conflict for domestic political harassment”.
Earlier, discussions in lower‑Saxony’s faction had centred on a resolution that rejects “the real‑existing Zionism of the current Netanyahu government”. The resolution also acknowledged the diversity of historical Zionist currents and expressed support for initiatives that seek reconciliation and a shared, peaceful future for all peoples in the region.
In that same motion, the lower‑Saxony group accused the Israeli government of genocide through its war conduct in Gaza, the blockade of aid goods and forced expulsions, and described the situation in Israel and the occupied territories as an “apartheid” that deprives Palestinians of their rights.
The new federal motion, as reported by the ARD, says: “We, therefore, once again unequivocally affirm the right of Jews to self‑determination in the present state of Israel”. The same right is affirmed for Palestinians, and an “integrative two‑state solution” is advocated. The paper condemns both “the massacre of Hamas and allied militias on 7 October” and the “systematically perpetrated crimes” by the Israeli government in Gaza.
Simultaneously, the motion seeks to bridge divergent views within the party. It acknowledges that the majority consider the situation to constitute “genocide” while also noting that members who doubt whether the legal definition of genocide is met should not be wrongly accused of “denying or supporting Israeli war crimes”.
The draft will now be sent to the state associations and will serve as a discussion basis until the federal conference in Potsdam in June. Prior to that, the text can still be amended; only after the conference will it be regarded as the official party line.
